Where You Go, I Go
by TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba
Summary: How the series might have gone if Zuko had come to talk to Mai before he left to join the GAang. A Submission to Zai Week
1. Chapter 1

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**Disclaimer: So if I don't say that I don't own Avatar, whoever Mike and Bryan hired or whatever person decides to do it for free will track down my identity and try to sue me? Seriously?**

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Submission to Zai Week, Day 3

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Mai was sitting at the desk in her private quarters of the underground bunker, penning a letter to her parents in Oma-, pardon, New Ozai. Though, it was a lavish bunker; it nearly looked like her house above ground. She hadn't been expecting any visitors so when someone came bursting through her door, a knife automatically flew from her hand. Fortunately, her boy had good reflexes, dropping low in a crouch to dodge the blade that embedded itself into the stone wall.

"Zuko, what is wrong with you? Do you have a death wish?" she stood from her chair and walked towards him. He was still kneeling on the ground, and she could see that he had a pack on his back as well as his dao swords.

"What's going on?" kneeling in front of him, she put her hands on either side of his face, mindful of how sensitive he was of his scar, and forced him to look at her. "Tell me."

He looked up, meeting her eyes.

"I have to go."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's wrong, Mai. The Fire Nation, the war, my – the Fire Lord, it's all wrong. The world isn't supposed to be like this. The Fire Nation is supposed to be so great, but they all hate us. And they should."

"So you're going to banish yourself this time? That's supposed to fix it?"

"Not exactly that," he glanced away before he met her eyes again. "I'm going to teach the Avatar firebending. So he can defeat Ozai and end this war."

She was quiet a moment as she took all of this in.

"Why should it be you? Why do you think you're the one who's supposed to do this?"

"I _know_ it because Avatar Roku was my great grandfather."

He paused a moment to let the implications of that sink in. If one were to believe in all the lure of spirits and the like, that the Avatar was supposed to keep the nation's in balance, then the war would be wrong. The world was out of balance, therefore the spirits were not pleased. With one ancestor being the cause of the war, and the other failing in his duty to prevent it, the line of Sozin is held accountable. Within the last two generations, there have been two children born. Ozai was wholly for the war; Iroh was not. Azula was wholly for her father, for the war; it would seem that Zuko was not. The line of Sozin messed up the world. The line of Sozin needed to fix it.

Mai removed her hands and sat back, looking stunned.

"You can't do anything the easy way, can you?" she mused.

"That would be boring," he teased.

She arched a brow and sent him a look.

"Apparently, I'm a bad influence on you. All right," she stood up and moved to the wardrobe on the opposite side of the room. "Guess I'll pack up then."

"Wait, what?"

She pulled the doors open and looked at him from the mirror hanging on the inside.

"What did you think you were going to do? Come in here, break the news, and I was just going to give you a kiss good bye and send you on you way? You should know better."

She grabbed a bag and quickly shoved two pairs of changing clothes and every blade she could into it. Then she took a pair of pants out and threw them back in the wardrobe to make room for her sai.

"Mai, you can't come," he'd walked over to her while she'd been packing.

"You're not leaving me."

"You don't –"

"You," she stood up and glared at him, "are not leaving me behind, Zuko. Not again."

Zuko sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"It's not safe for you to come with me! I'm actively going against Ozai on this. This," he pointed to his scar, "is what I got for speaking out against something his general said. You're not coming."

"If you think you're doing something chivalrous or some crap like that, you can forget it. I can protect myself and you're going to need someone to protect you, too."

He tried to turn away from her, his frustration clear, but she caught his hand.

"Please, Zuko."

Zuko stared at her in shock. She sounded like she was going to cry. Mai always had a handle on her emotions. That isn't to say that she didn't feel them, she just didn't express them. Yet at this moment, she was on the verge of tears. Because of him.

He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. She held on ever tighter.

"You can come. But there's something I need to do first. Meet me at the ship yard. I'll be there soon."

She leaned back to look him in the eye.

"If this is some sort of stupid trick to make sure I stay here, I swear I will hunt you down and make you regret it."

He smiled at her.

"It's not. I promise."

* * *

_It was taking too long. She'd been here waiting for him too long. Something happened. He got caught. He wasn't really coming here. He's hurt. He's… he is _not _dead. Nothing happened to him. He didn't get caught or hurt. He told her to come here and he will._

Mai tensed when she heard running feet coming her way. A knife dropped into her hand and she waited. Moments later, Zuko dropped from the roof of the building above into the alley she was in and landed in a crouch. He was breathing heavily and looked very shaken. Knife still in hand, Mai glanced quickly around before she sank to her knees in front of him and put a hand on his cheek.

"Zuko?"

He was looking at the ground, trembling.

"I'm okay. We have to go."

He stood, grabbed her hand, and started running again. They could hear the noise of the battle raging in the capital city all around them and constantly weaved through the streets and back alleys to avoid getting caught in it, often doubling back. A ten minute run took fifteen minutes shy of an hour to make. Once they reached the air ship yard, they easily 'commandeered' a small air ship and sailed away.

By that time, the battle was over. The invasion force had been apprehended but they could see the Avatar's air bison in the distance ahead of them and followed. Too soon, it was out of sight though.

Zuko sent flame into the balloon to light the coal so it could power itself for a while and sat on the stool next to it after he adjusted their course. He let out a sigh and leaned back against the low wall of the balloon. Mai was on the floor next to him and leaned her head on his thigh.

"We made it," he said, relief clear in his voice.

"You doubted your plan that much?"

"I've made a lot of plans over the years. They always blow up in my face in one way or another. Yeah, I doubted."

"Well, if you had gotten yourself caught, I suppose I'd have to come and rescue you."

"You'd do that?" he forward so he could see her face.

She raised her head enough to give him a profile. With an indifferent look on her face, she said,

"Nah, not really. I'd totally let you rot."

Then she smacked him on the leg.

"Of course I would. Do you realize that I would die from boredom without you around?"

A smile formed on his lips.

"You'd die without me?"

The palest, barely there blush tinted Mai's cheeks ever so slightly.

"From the boredom, Zuko."

"Okay," he said and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Shut up," she told him, a smile working onto her face.

"So what was so important that kept me waiting for you twenty minutes?"

He stayed silent longer than she appreciated. Was it that hard a question? She slid a glance her way, and he was looking away from her and his face was telling her that he was wishing she'd asked him anything else. She narrowed her eyes at him, as if that would give her the answer. He did something stupid, dangerous, reckless, or all three plus something else.

"Um…I went to talk to the Fire Lord to tell him the truth about what happened in Bah Sing Se, what I thought of him, what I intended to do and then he said something about my mother so I stayed to hear what he had to say until the eclipse passed and he told me so she could still be alive then he fired lightning at me because, you know, the whole treason thing, but redirected it back at him but only at the base of the throne so it didn't hit him, it just exploded."

He paused to take a breath since he'd said all that in basically one. He was about to continue but hesitated when he caught the glare Mai was sending him.

"You idiot! That's the stupidest thing you've ever done!"

"I think Captain Jee and Uncle Iroh would disagree with you on that one. I wasn't done though," he told her hesitantly. He didn't think it was possible but her glare became even darker. Sighing and taking a deep breath, he continued to explain a little slower.

"After I got out of the bunker, I went to get Uncle out, but apparently, he busted out by himself. He was long gone by the time I arrived. I really messed up with him, Mai."

He looked so sad that Mai felt her anger ebb slightly. She stood up and wrapped her arms around him, and he put his arms around her waist. They held each other for a moment before Mai stepped back and slapped him upside his head.

"Ow! What was that?" he yelled, clutching his head.

"Consequences. When you do something stupid, bad things happen, Zuko."

"Nothing happened but you slapping me!"

"Because that is the consequence for doing something stupid, even though you got away with it. If it all goes terrible, then you get it right there, but if you just get off perfectly fine, you'll get cocky, sloppy, caught later on, and then dead. And you are useless to me dead."

Zuko stared at her a moment, pouting although he probably didn't know it.

"What?" she challenged.

"I'm thinking that I'm probably pretty lucky that you're only slapping me once for all of this."

"Oh, you'll get the rest later. Don't worry."

He scoffed.

"I'm going to leave myself at the mercy of three people who I've been chasing around the world for the past year, one is a master airbender and the Avatar, the other a temperamental master waterbender, and her brother. They have every reason to hate me, not trust a word that comes out of my mouth, and kill me. And she says, 'Don't worry'."

"Fine then. Worry if it makes you feel better. Or we could do something productive like figure out how we're going to sell this."

Zuko leaned forward, put his hand to the fire, and gave it another blast.

"Easier said than done."

* * *

"I'm sorry that I attacked your village, threatened your grandmother, hunted you from one end of the world to the other, sent those pirates after you, and Jun, and – "

"Enough already!"

"See? I told you so."

"We are so screwed. I swear I can hear the dead airbenders laughing at us from the spirit world."

* * *

"Zuko, I can't do this. I just can't."

"Mai – "

"No, you don't understand what you're asking me. It's not happening," Mai crossed her arms and turned away from Zuko. They were in a small clearing where they'd landed the balloon. Zuko was sitting on a large boulder as Mai made a fuss. Zuko sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. He stood up, walked to Mai, put his arms around her waist, and propped his chin on her shoulder.

"I do understand, Mai. I really do. But in order for them to trust us, they have to see us as non-threatening. In order to do that, you can't have your knives on you."

"Well, in order for you to not be a threat, we'd have to tear your lungs out," she grumbled. "And I feel naked without my knives."

Zuko didn't comment as he'd just gotten a mental picture and was slightly distracted. He turned his head just a little and kissed her neck.

"No," she told him firmly.

Two kisses, a third trailing up to her jaw.

"That's not fair, Zuko."

She tilted her head, exposing her neck. He backed off slightly and turned her around.

Mai had just enough time to mutter 'Jerk', before his lips were on hers. It was a few minutes later before they separated.

"Fine," she panted and moved out of his arms. Zuko smiled slightly. "Oh, shut up and turn around."

"Why?"

"Because I need to become unthreatening," she held up her hand and made a gesture for him to turn. He rolled his eyes but obeyed. He stared at the forested area around them while he listened to the rustling of Mai's clothes and the occasional clink of metal. The thought of the steel flying at his face kept him firmly facing away from her and banished thoughts of taking a quick peek.

"You can turn around now."

He did and saw Mai frowning as she straightened her sleeve and a large pile of kunai, stilettos, daggers, a pair of sai, senbon needles, and other sharp, pointy things.

"Where do you keep all of that?"

"You will never know. Now help me put these away all my nice, save-our-lives-from-the-angry-peasants weapons that would so help us when they attack us."

"They're not – well, they might…they probably will but it won't be lethal."

Great job, Mai. Now he looked worried again, panicked even.

"So doomed," she muttered too low for him to hear. Then she said louder, "I'm sure everything will go great," and even she was impressed with how much that obvious lie sounded like the truth.

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Please let me know of any mistakes you spot. Or just review if you don't see any :)

Mai's awesome. It's because of the knives and super-icy chill composure. And she can take down benders when she isn't one. Seriously, who pins people to the walls with knives and DOESN'T cut them? That is too cool, but they should totally make another season or something that's keyed to an older audience that shows, I don't know, actual blood and war type things. Like in Vathara's Embers. That story is beast! I'll stop rambling now.


	2. Chapter 2

Zuko thought they should practice what they would say. Mai agreed, because what else was there to do. He went first. By the time he was done struggling through it, she decided it wasn't the worst speech she'd ever heard.

"Well?" he asked with this sad, little hopeful expression on his face.

Mai exchanged a look with the badger frog on the log next to her.

"Would you like to take this one?"

The frog croaked then hopped onto Zuko's head and away. He groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face.

"Well, I didn't think it was _that_ bad," Mai mused.

"I thought you came to help me."

"Yeah, yeah. What would your uncle tell you then?"

He paused for a minute, looking thoughtful.

"Zuko," he said, starting to pace and stroke a beard that wasn't there, "you have to look within yourself, to save yourself from your other self. Only then will your true self reveal itself."

"What does –"

"I have no idea."

He may not, and she didn't really get it either. Yet it was somewhat amusing.

"Huh. Do Azula."

He obeyed, raising his voice to match Azula's and propping a hand on his hip.

"Listen, Avatar, I can join your group or I can do something unspeakably horrible to you and your friends. Your choice."

Mai began a slow clap.

"Would you be serious?" Zuko yelled in frustration. "How are we supposed to convince these people that we're on their side?"

She pushed herself off of the rock she'd been resting on, dusting of the back of her clothes. Her hands came away with some kind of _nature _on it, and she shuddered. Overcoming that, she walked to Zuko and wrapped him in a hug, subtly wiping her hands on the back of his shirt.

"Stop freaking out. I'll work something out for you, since your diplomacy skills suck."

"Oh, wow, thanks for that."

"Although, _skills_ might be too nice…"

"Was it really that bad?"

The badger frog hopped next to them and croaked.

* * *

The forest stopped. A short expanse of grass and shrubs began for only a quarter mile before it ended in an abrupt drop. The cliff face housed a temple, more a city really. The original inhabitants had long since passed, but there was life in the old ruins.

This is where the Avatar and his friends were hiding. Even if Zuko hadn't been following them, it would have been simple to track them here. The Avatar thought this place was safe, that the Fire Nation wouldn't know about it. He was halfway right; most didn't. Zuko, however, had experience and knowledge of such places.

He and Mai were scaling down the side of the mountain for the outcrop of rock below. From above, it looked no different than any other jutting orifice. But Zuko had been here before nearly three years ago. Last time, it had been empty. The only thing that could hurt him had been the thoughts and imaginations in his own head. This time, he'd have to deal with the Avatar, a master waterbender, a Water Tribe warrior, a master earthbender, and whoever else they'd picked up. He wasn't altogether certain if he should count the lemur and the bison.

What also made this different was the company. Zuko glanced to his left. Mai's eyes were fixated on the area around her. He couldn't get over the fact that she was actually here with him. She would have been perfectly safe back in the Fire Nation. Bringing her had just put her in danger; and she'd known that. He knew Mai cared for him but to do this…now was not the time to think about it. He'd do that later. He thought of the group below. If there was a later, he thought with a grimace.

* * *

Katara, Aang, and Sokka formed a semi-circle around Toph who was seated on the stone fountain, her feet dangling in the water. They'd basically just arrived at the Western Air Temple. Teo, the Duke, and Haku had run off to explore and Aang had been about to follow until Katara called him back. They needed to come up with a new plan to beat the Fire Lord.

"It's simple," Sokka told them. "The new plan is the old plan!"

The old plan that Aang learn firebending had a problem. Two, actually. Aang's hesitancy to learn firebending because of his fear of hurting someone again. Also, who for the love of Guanyin were they going to get to teach Aang?

"We could track down Jeong Jeong again," Katara suggested.

"Yeah, but we didn't actually find him the first time. When that guy wants to disappear, he's gone," Sokka said.

"Who's J – nevermind. If it's important, I'll find out later," Toph rolled unseeing eyes.

They were always talking about people she didn't know. One guy, Bumi, was supposed to be this really great earthbender. This was a man she wanted to meet…and put down. _Hard. _With the way Aang went on, and how uneasy Sokka and Katara were about him, it hinted that Bumi was the real deal.

Toph suddenly straightened up and planted her feet firmly on the base of the fountain.

"Guys?" she spoke up but went unheeded as the siblings and Aang continued their debate.

She felt a prick of annoyance as she stomped her foot and the earth underneath her friends jumped.

"Toph!" Sokka whined from his new position on the ground. Aang, of course, landed fine, and caught Katara too.

"What?" Katara asked with a frown.

Toph merely pointed behind them. They turned to see Zuko and the scary girl with knives and immediately took battle stances except for Toph who merely rolled her eyes.

"Hello," Zuko waved.

"Oh, come on!" Sokka cried from where he was still sprawled on the ground. "Can't we ever get a break?"

The girl stood silently as Zuko nervously rubbed the back of his head. Toph noticed there was something off about her weight. Usually, she was heavier. Not with fat, but with metal. She tapped the heel of her foot against the ground to get a better feel. Huh. She was unarmed. Well, that was interesting.

"What are you doing here?" Aang asked, sinking into a defensive position.

"What he's always doing. Except this time he brought a friend," Katara settled into a stance of her own, waiting for him to even twitch wrong.

"That's not why we're here," Zuko started hesitantly as he eyed the glaring waterbender. He took a deep breath and tried again with a little more confidence. "I know that I've made mistakes with dealing you guys in the past."

"Understatement of the century," Katara grumbled.

"And I know that a lot of it is completely unforgivable. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, and I'm not asking for it. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I swear I'll do everything I can to earn it. I just want the chance to teach the Avatar firebending because I _know_ that it's my destiny to teach you and help you end this war."

They stared at him dumbly for a moment. That didn't last long.

"You want to what now?" Sokka asked.

"Are you crazy?" Katara finished. "Do you think we're that stupid? That we would actually trust you after everything you've done to us?"

Zuko opened his mouth to speak, but Toph cut him off.

"Katara, get real."

"Excuse me?"

"No, I don't think I will. Here you guys were, all freaking out about Aang learning firebending, and a Jeong-Jeong person, and then this guy shows up, begging to be the guy to teach Aang firebending! And you tell him no."

"Toph, it's Zuko!"

"Oh, really? I thought it was some _other_ firebender who appeared out of nowhere to teach Aang? How silly of me. We have plenty of options, and it's not like time matters or anything."

"You're being ridiculous. You can't honestly expect –"

"For you to grow up and get over your petty little differences-" Toph abruptly pointed at her.

"Petty?"

"And accept that we need Zuko whether you like him or not," Toph turned her sightless eyes on Katara.

Everyone else had wisely not spoken during the confrontation. Aang wasn't even too sure he should be breathing right now. Katara glared at Toph even though the blind girl couldn't see it before her gaze swung to Mai. Toph was absently aware that Teo and the others were standing somewhere behind them. This couldn't be a trap. Zuko was sincere and not stupid. He knew they could take him and his girl.

"Trust him? And just what do you say about her?"

All eyes turned to Zuko for explanation.

"She's with me," he said simply, reaching absently for her hand.

"What more do you need?" Toph asked. "It's not even like she's a threat right now."

"What?" Sokka questioned.

"I mean, she's weaponless as far as I can tell."

"She's right," the Fire Nation girl spoke up. "We thought lowering the threat level would help with this."

"Why are you even here? Did you get bored being Azula's little lackey?" Katara asked, sending the other girl a death glare that made Aang and Sokka flinch.

"That covers the gist of it."

To her credit, the pale girl didn't even blink. Toph decided she liked her.

"That's _so_ reassuring," Sokka muttered.

"Katara," Aang said, "I think Toph has a point. Maybe we should?"

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I've done some good things too!" he defended. "In Bah Sing Se, I could have stolen bison, but I let him go."

Appa seemed to be backing up his claim, lumbering over and running his huge tongue up his back. The girl shuddered delicately, outright revulsion rolling off of her.

"He probably just covered himself in honey or something," Sokka declared stubbornly. "I don't buy it, and I don't trust you. One supposed good deed doesn't change the fact that you attacked our village and chased us all over the world."

"Or how about the time you stole my mother's necklace and sent that crazy woman after us?"

Zuko shifted to look at Aang.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You once said that you thought we could be friends. You know that I have good in me."

"That really wasn't that long ago, was it?" he shook his head though. "There's no way we can trust you after everything you done."

"I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore!"

No matter how earnest he sounded, the group didn't show any empathy.

He sighed, swallowing all pride he had left. Zuko dropped to his knees, and Mai followed his example, though with some hesitation.

"If you won't take us as friends, then accept us as prisoners."

"You guys," Toph said, "they've been telling the truth this whole time."

"Or maybe he's just as good a liar as his sister," Katara put in.

"Can I just say," Mai added, head still bowed over her hands, "that Zuko cannot lie to save his life?"

"Is this supposed to be you helping?" Zuko whispered not so quietly to her.

She shrugged. "I couldn't possibly make it any worse."

* * *

A/N: Huh. I totally messed that up last chapter. But hey, if no one didn't spot it and didn't call me on it, I see no reason to address it any longer . Points to anyone who knows what it is though.


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